Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

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chemimike
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Location: Reading

Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by chemimike »

Ian
I do not know whether you were able to do a search on the Newspaper archive, but in case you did not, I did a full search for "John Riley", "Huckerby" and "Grasby" for from 0ct 1978 - dec 1980, and nothing relevant came up. Of course they are continually adding to the range and, at present, the more recent coverage (post 1979) is not brilliant, and items may be added later.

iansmithofotley
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Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by iansmithofotley »

Hi chemimike,

I don't think that there is an easy way of getting details of the final trial and any convictions. It would be a case of trolling through all the newspapers for the remainder of 1978 and 1979 and even then it would be easy to miss an article. It was a bit of a nightmare at the Reference Library, the newspapers are on wide 'film like' transparent tapes and the machines were temperamental and kept sticking and jumping about all the time. What should have been a twenty minutes job took me over two hours. Apparently, they have micro-fiche copies of the newspapers - I will try that if I get to go again. I'll have another look at the 'Freedom of Information Act' in relation to Final Inquest Records and Crown Court Convictions but I am not sure that I will make any progress.

Ian
Last edited by iansmithofotley on Sat 22 Jan, 2022 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jma
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Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by jma »

It's a small world. Paul Briggs moved to Gildersome not long after we did and bought a house we had admired. A very pleasant and modest man. I can't remember why I was there but I remember him giving evidence when the Crown Court used to be in the Town Hall. A defence barrister with no real defence tried but failed to rattle him with the old shabby trick of getting his rank wrong in the hope of distracting the jury. I think he had various problems with his health before his untimely death.

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blackprince
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Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by blackprince »

Ian,

Thanks for a very thorough piece of research. It puts to bed the discrepancies in the previous online references.

I know from a published talk given to the university( https://tinyurl.com/muwctkdk) , that his wife Carol was still alive and at an address in Guisley, 35 years after his death. ( 2012) when she was contacted by his old friend/colleague who arranged to donate his archive of papers to the university.

Incidentally, this is the same reputable(?) source which refers to him being " murdered by two muggers outside a pub in the Chapel Allerton area of Leeds" , which we now know is incorrect but raised doubts in my mind about the location of the murder scene.

Regards,
John (aka BP)
It used to be said that the statue of the Black Prince had been placed in City Square , near the station, pointing South to tell all the southerners who've just got off the train to b****r off back down south!

dogduke
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Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by dogduke »

Carol Brown died in 2015 in a care home in Guiseley. Aged 68 so she was a few years younger than John.
There is a little article in the Wharfedale Observer at the time,can someone put the link in this thread ?
Searching can become quite addictive.
I
Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.

iansmithofotley
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Joined: Fri 28 Dec, 2007 4:10 pm

Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by iansmithofotley »

jma wrote:
Sat 22 Jan, 2022 4:34 pm
It's a small world. Paul Briggs moved to Gildersome not long after we did and bought a house we had admired. A very pleasant and modest man. I can't remember why I was there but I remember him giving evidence when the Crown Court used to be in the Town Hall. A defence barrister with no real defence tried but failed to rattle him with the old shabby trick of getting his rank wrong in the hope of distracting the jury. I think he had various problems with his health before his untimely death.
Hi Mick,

I knew Paul from working with him in the Leeds Burglary Squad, when it was formed in 1975, he was a D.I. and I was a D.S. We got on well together but at that time he had had domestic issues and I think he got divorced. At the time he was temporarily living alone in a council flat at Norman Towers, at the bottom of Spen Lane.

I think that he, later, got into a new relationship and bought a detached house on Town Street at Gildersome, on the left going towards Gelderd Road, and near that end. I think that in later life, he lost his sight and he died very young aged 68 years.

As a Det. Supt. at Weetwood P.S., in 1986, he was responsible for moving me from being a P.S. at Otley P.S. back into the C.I.D. at Weetwood. I worked with him, there, until I got promoted to Inspector in 1988, and moved to Holbeck P.S.

Paul was a nice bloke, he was originally from the West Riding/West Yorkshire Police but came to the Leeds area after the 1974 amalgamation of forces. I enjoyed working with him.

Ian

iansmithofotley
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Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by iansmithofotley »

dogduke wrote:
Sat 22 Jan, 2022 6:38 pm
Carol Brown died in 2015 in a care home in Guiseley. Aged 68 so she was a few years younger than John.
There is a little article in the Wharfedale Observer at the time,can someone put the link in this thread ?
Searching can become quite addictive.
I
Here is the article :

https://www.wharfedaleobserver.co.uk/ne ... o-the-end/

jma
Posts: 499
Joined: Fri 05 Aug, 2016 3:38 pm

Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by jma »

I think that he, later, got into a new relationship and bought a detached house on Town Street at Gildersome, on the left going towards Gelderd Road, and near that end. I think that in later life, he lost his sight and he died very young aged 68 years
That's the house we looked at too. It faces onto a small green area opposite Gildersome Junior School. I can't remember all the details but it was newly-built then so Paul Briggs will have been the first resident. I think it came onto the market after we had moved here so another move was probably out of the question. That house has an impressive front but nothing at the back. Ours is the reverse of that. That house has a south-facing balcony and the Briggs' used to spend a lot of time sunbathing on it after he had retired. I didn't know he'd been divorced: I didn't know him that well. I did hear about his deteriorating health after he had moved. Nothing to do with this murder, but another retired ex-Leeds officer (491) Bernard Trought who lived in another new house just across Mill Lane from the Briggs' house collapsed and died (aortic aneurism) when he was 69.

jma
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Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by jma »

Ian

I've remembered that when I was a patrol sergeant at Chap, Tony Goode was a sergeant in the Vice Squad. In August 1978, we were called in together to see Moose Walker to be told we had both got the top grade on a promotion board. Then, Moose kicked me out and told Tony he was going to see the chief (Gregory) almost immediately. He was staying at Chap. A week or two later I got the call and I went to Garforth.

I know you keep in touch with the NARPO news. Although Tony joined a couple of years before me I think we were roughly the same age and he was still serving at Pudsey when I retired. The last time I saw him was when he brought my fingerprints for destruction at our house which would have been in July 1997. If he is still alive and in touch with West Yorkshire NARPO he should remember. (About the murder, that is.)

As an irrelevant bit of further information, Tony and I went together to see the Chief in the first big (30+) batch of promotions after amalgamation on 3 April, 1974. I gave him a lift because his car was off the road.

iansmithofotley
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Re: Murder of Leeds Poet 1978

Post by iansmithofotley »

Hi Mick,

You are correct about Tony Goode (650). He started at Gipton in 1965 and later went to Chapeltown where he served as a uniform sergeant, vice squad sergeant, uniform inspector, community affairs inspector and then chief inspector - all without moving stations (as far as I know). For many years, he lived in the Crossgates area but I think that he has now moved away from Leeds. I got on well with Tony but I haven’t seen him since 1995 when I retired.

I think that it was Tony Watson (993) who took over from Tony Goode in the Vice Squad in 1978 and he worked with Dave Scholey (1037) and John Eastham. I used to see John regularly at rugby matches but he died suddenly at Christmas in 2013 (aged 61 yrs.), I saw him in Wetherby just a few days before he died.

All of these officers would have been involved in or aware of the John Riley murder investigation. I went back to Chapeltown from Horsforth in 1979 and Eddie Hemsley was the detective inspector but, again, I haven’t seen Eddie, Dave or Tony Watson since I retired.

I don’t know how Paul Briggs became involved in the murder investigation - maybe he was the only senior detective on duty in that division on that Saturday morning. I can’t remember Paul being stationed at Chapeltown but I might be wrong. If he charged the defendants, he was probably responsible for the court file.

Lots of qualified people got promoted in the months before 1st April 1974 as the chief constables of the Leeds, Bradford and West Yorkshire forces tried to get their own staff promoted and in the places that they wanted them, before the amalgamation of police forces. It didn’t really apply to me.

Ian

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